Australian Institute of Physics
Tasmanian Branch
(ABN 81 004 566 509)

14.11.2002, Hobart

Dear Colleagues,

The Tasmanian Branch had a busy year promoting Physics in 2002 with a range of activities, unevenly distributed in time, mostly due to the transfer of the National Science Week to August, which unfortunately coincided with the Open Days at the University of Tasmania. The Branch Committee organized seven public lectures, two youth lectures at high schools, an annual physics quiz for grade 11/12 students, and a science teachers’ seminar. It also tried to alert the university administration about the catastrophic situation of the Enabling Sciences in Australia. Some Committee members participated in the University Open Days. The Tasmanian Committee met on ten occasions since the last AGM.

In short, 2002 has been a year of extremes. We have experienced both disheartening as well as exciting moments this year. One depressing period was when, as a possible outcome of a pending review, the Discipline of Physics was facing major “restructuring” with probable sacrifice of one of its key fields. A counterbalance thankfully arrived several months later. The achievements of Physics in Tasmania were more publicised with the international recognition of Prof. Robert Delbourgo’s work in theoretical physics when he was awarded the Massey Medal by the Institute of Physics (UK) and AIP.

Most of our activities in 2002 have received considerable coverage in “The Physicist”. The effort of all contributors is much appreciated

We started our public lecture programme with a presentation by Prof. Gerd Rudolph on “Geometry and Physics: From Newton to Einstein and beyond”.

A new format for public lectures was introduced this year. A Winter Public Lecture Series in Physics, named in honour of Alexander and Leicester McAulay, two distinguished Professors of Physics from the early years of the University of Tasmania, was given for the first time and consisted of four lectures:

- “Space weather – who cares about weather in space?” by Dr Marc Duldig,

- “Mad, bad and dangerous – Why do scientists have such a bad press” by Prof. Roslynn Haynes,

- “Astronomers behaving badly” by Dr Fred Watson,

- “Twinkle, twinkle little quasi-star, How I wonder what you are? The search for the littlest quasar” by Dr David Jauncey.

These were spread over the winter months and were well received.

The Tasmanian public, including Physics students, also heard the inspiring Massey Lecture "Four Dimensions: More or less?” thanks to Prof. Bob Delbourgo's willingness to repeat his talk at the Sydney Congress.

The 2002 Women in Physics lecturer, A/Prof. Lidia Morawska, gave a stimulating presentation on Aerosols to the first year Physics students as well as delivering her public lecture on “Physics and its Masters” to a general audience. We ensured that all speakers were interviewed on ABC Radio National prior to their public lectures. Our current and past programmes are available on our web pages. Unfortunately two thirds of our lectures this year were presented within a period of seven weeks.

A report published in the September/October issue of “The Physicist” about the decline in Enabling sciences was sent to the Dean of the University and received a sympathetic reply from him with a suggestion to present a detailed list of initiatives which can be taken by the University and AIP to stop the decline. To achieve this goal a meeting involving Heads of Chemistry and Maths&Physics and representatives of RACI and AIP was organised by Prof. Delbourgo. After the meeting which was attended by Head of Mathematics and Physics and representatives of RACI and AIP, a comprehensive list of strategies and initiatives for arresting decline in Enabling Sciences at UTAS was prepared and circulated by Prof. Delbourgo.

The 2001 Tasmanian Year 11/12 teachers’ seminar was held in Launceston where a series of talks was given by Tasmanian scientists. It also offered a good forum for the participants to discuss current education issues.

Some physics teachers expressed their interest in a poster-size version of our brochure “Physics opportunities in Tasmania” and over 70 extra large colour posters were printed by Dr Gary Burns and distributed to high schools at our expense.

From the feed-back received from the teachers at the science teacher’s seminar in 2001 we discovered that Youth Lectures are one of the most effective ways of communicating science. This year the lecturer, Dr Fred Watson delivered his superb lecture “Industrial Strength Cosmology” to more than 100 students in the South (Hobart) and the North (Launceston).

The 10^th AIP Quiz for teams of year 11/12 students had a record number of sponsors and was a great success. The unfortunate timing of so many science/education oriented events in Tasmania in August interfered with the Youth Lectures and the quiz, and prevented many potential participants from attending.

On the financial side I can report that the Tasmanian Branch contributed to the Tasmanian Science Talent Quest, the Medieval Missile Challenge and to the Physics prizes for second and third year students.

Additionally, we offered support ($400) to a student attending the 15th AIP Congress in Sydney in July and a student attending a summer school ($50). Because of the uncertainty surrounding our funds this year and lack of resources up to August, we regrettably could not offer any support to the three high school students who were trying to raise money to attend international scientific forums.

For the first time our Branch has developed a budget which properly characterises our financial needs.

We are pleased that the national funding formula has been reviewed. This was one of the motions proposed by the Tasmanian Branch and passed at the last Council meeting in February this year. The second motion proposed by our Branch, relating to lapsed membership, has also been passed. Dr Steve Newbery attended the Council meeting.

On June 21 the AIP National President, Prof. John O’Connor visited our Branch as a part of his national tour of Branches. This was an excellent opportunity to talk about specific problems associated with our local arena as well as to discuss the present and the future of the AIP. Our participation in national initiatives is rather erratic since we do not have enough members to cover all issues.

Four Branch members attended the 15^th AIP Congress in Sydney in July. A written summary of relevant Congress activities has been circulated among Committee members.

We have a very low number of members. Our membership increased by 5% when we gained two new members this year! An AIP membership offer to the third year students was presented to them too late and we did not gain any new student members this year. Additionally, some of the last year's AIP members became non-financial this year.

Sadly, we have to record the unexpected death of Dr Anthony Breed, a gifted applied physicist, who made a significant contribution to upper atmospheric research and was recently involved in the Tasmanian International Geospace Environmental Radar (TIGER) project.

I have enjoyed my time as Branch Chair and I would like to thank the Committee for the unconditional support and help I have received all the time. Particularly, I would like to thank Dr Gary Burns who has been Branch Secretary for the past two years, for all his work and encouragement and his involvement with the Youth Lecture in the North of Tasmania. I hope he keeps his passion for the popularization of Physics among young people. I wish him a lot of success in his work outside the Branch Committee.

I would like to thank Prof. Robert Delbourgo for his contribution as Vice-Chair and his involvement in organizing the AIP Quiz. I express thanks to Dr Steve Newbery for his work as a Branch Treasurer and for his involvement in organising the Youth Lecture in Hobart. Dr Ian Newman has organized the science teachers’ seminar in 2001 and, together with Dr John Humble are looking after our web pages. Their help here is invaluable; a big “Thank you” to you both. I am grateful to Dr Raymond Haynes for putting a tremendous effort to have the winter series of lectures up and working, even offering accommodation to the speakers in order to cut the costs.

Last but not least I would like to express my thanks to Dr Marc Duldig for his support throughout the year in organising radio interviews with the speakers He has also been tireless in reporting our Branch activities to “The Physicist”. His efforts in giving us this media coverage is much appreciated.

It has been very rewarding for me to work with this team.

I wish the new Branch Chair enjoyment and success.

Elizabeth Chelkowska

AIP Tasmanian Branch, Chair